A thing: The English We Speak

Feifei: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak.
I’m Feifei.
Neil: And I’m Neil.
Feifei: Where’s… your beard?
Neil: I, uh, shaved it off. I fancied a change.
Beards are such a thing these days.
Feifei: Yup, ever since beards became a thing,
I’ve found them a bit boring.
Neil: ‘A thing’. Of course, we know what the word
‘thing’ normally means, but what does
‘a thing’ mean here?
Feifei: Our phrase for today means ‘a trend’
or ‘something recognisable in popular culture’.
If beards are ‘a thing’, it means they’ve become
fashionable: lots of people have them.
Neil: Yes. Cats on the internet – they’re a thing.
Feifei: Oh, fidget spinners. They’re definitely a thing.
Neil: Fidget spinners?
Feifei: Yes, those little metal or plastic toys
that you spin on your finger. Know them?
Neil: Oh, those things that kids everywhere
are playing with.
Feifei: Not just kids. Anyway. What else is a thing?
Listen to these examples.
Examples: Using funny GIFs in your message
is such a thing.
You know parkour: the sport of running and jumping
across buildings? Why is that such a thing?
Organic powdered food.
Since when has that been a thing?
Feifei: A well-known use of this phrase was after
American personality Kim Kardashian
posted a picture of herself pregnant,
with the words “pregnancy lips”.
Neil: It’s not a term that many people had heard of,
and prompted responses like this:
“Pregnancy lips? Is that even a thing?”
Feifei: Yes, when someone refers to a trend
you haven’t heard of, or that you doubt exists,
feel free to respond with
‘is that even a thing?’
Neil: But there’s little doubt the phrase ‘a thing’
is itself ‘a thing’ –
it’s now been included in major dictionaries.
Feifei: There we are. A thing.
No plans to grow the beard back, then?
Neil: Only when being clean-shaven
becomes too much of a thing!
Feifei and Neil: Bye.